Drowning victim Robert Brown remembered for originality

Wednesday

Mar 25, 2009 at 11:22 AMMar 25, 2009 at 4:39 PM

Local artist Robert Delford Brown, 78, accidentally drowned before his body was found in the Cape Fear River, sheriff's deputies have said.

Nearly one year after celebrating his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, Robert Delford Brown, 78 of Wilmington has died.His body was found Tuesday in the Cape Fear River and the cause of death was ruled an accidental drowning, according to Deputy Charles Smith of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. There was no sign of trauma, according to the medical examiner, and detectives do not suspect foul play, Smith said.Members of Wilmington’s art community were shocked Wednesday when they learned of Brown’s death. Brown’s first exhibition was at the Cameron Art Museum.Local artist and owner of Independent Art Company Dan Brawley fought back tears as he talked about his mentor.“Bob really understood at least the way I feel, which is just sort of an exaggerated mixture of disgust at the world and excitement of what can happen in the world,” Brawley said. “There’s no pretense to his work. It’s so refreshing and so honest. Somehow he was one of those people who captured that essence of being a little kid, and he just kept it until the very end. So inspiring.”In the 1960s, Brown created his own religion – Funkupaganism – and his own church, The Church of the Exquisite Panic, to express his philosophy that “No art is not art” and highlight the striving of artists to create a better world. The icons and happenings he created for his church were his artwork – a mixture of Dadaist and other modern art influences. Brown’s inaugural event for his church was “The Meat Show” in 1964 where he hung beef, pig heads, hearts, human hair and lingerie in the Washington Meat Market in New York City to induce spiritual, sexual and aesthetic revelations in his audience.“His spiritual presence was real. To a lot of people the church seemed like a joke,” Brawley added, “but I don’t think it was intended to be a joke.” Brawley is a “saint” in Brown’s church. Brown helped Brawley create a leaning “Tower of Tires” still on the Cameron Art Museum grounds as an homage to the fragility of human life.Brown was known for his eccentricity and absolute passion for nature and art.“He was very unusual, very forward thinking and loved life. Making art accessible to people of all ages was how he lived his entire life,” said his stepdaughter, Carol Cone in a phone interview from Boston. “He wanted his religion to be lighthearted. His only tenet was ‘Don’t eat cars.’ ” Cone said she hoped to hold a celebration of her stepfather’s life in Wilmington later in the spring.Brown’s Facebook page is filled with 20-somethings who admired him for his energy.“The first thing he ever said to me was ‘Human beings are insane animals,’ said Joel Finsel, local writer. “He was always challenging you.”RE/Search, an underground arts publication recently compared Brown to the artist Marcel Duchamp and wrote: “he crossed more barriers between art and non-art than almost any other artist, and his output still remains challenging, outrageous, and thought-provoking -- not to mention, inspirational.”The mark of Brown’s art career was in the questions he raised in his audience.“He was not a good, ‘sensible’ artist, producing simple, pleasurable visual works that people wanted to buy,” said Deborah Velders, executive director at the Cameron Art Musuem. “He took the more challenging role of social critic, philosopher and provocateur whose views of the world were expressed in highly charged, humorous and sometimes outrageous works of art.”